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Kelly Clarkson: Piece by Piece

Published On:
22/03/2015

Kelly Clarkson's unambiguous orchestral balladry hasn't been heard in its full glory since 2011's Stronger – save for misguided 2013 Christmas album Wrapped in Red. Four years after her last full studio album, the American Idol star has set the tone for her 2015 with Piece by Piece.

Throughout what has been a whirlwind career and rise to fame, Clarkson's music has primarily revolved around themes of heartbreak, survival, struggle and self-empowerment, all thrown together under the banners of country and pop. Staying true to her origins, Clarkson covers the same lyrical themes on her latest LP, but shows signs of evolution, with Piece by Piece taking strong eighties inspirations as well as sprinkling it all with a hint of electro-pop.

With a catchy bubblegum chorus and a cheery Clarkson crooning about an exhilarating new love, 'Heartbeat Song' opens the album, which, as a whole, shows Clarkson's voice to be much more versatile – something that is perhaps most evident on 'Invincible'. Co-written by Sia Fuhrler, the track is a slow-building power ballad that mixes the worlds of pop and electronic music to chart-friendly effect and feels like a continuation by previous hit single, 'What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)'.

Covering none-other-than German rock band, Tokio Hotel, Clarkson delivers an r&b-adorned duet of 'Run Run Run' with John Legend; a tune dripping with despair that gives the album more emotional depth – and, of course, the vocals of Mr Legend. But for every emotional exploration, there's an equally hollow song to go with it; tracks like 'Dance with Me' sees Clarkson lean the way of contemporaries such as Katy Perry with a disco-pop number that sees her sing, "And when the music starts and the lights go down we will all be found."

It's this type of modern chart pop that sways the album into mimicry; 'Take you High' draws heavily on the use of electronic vocal tampering, resulting in Clarkson's vocals being void of any of its distinctiveness.

This is the struggle that 'Piece by Piece' embodies; it feels like Clarkson is trying too hard to make a statement – what that statement might be isn't immediately clear, but it's almost certainly motivated by the need to stay relevant. The lyrics go from being emotionally draining and gritty to fun and bubbly, and while it showcases a flexibility and adaptability that we've not seen often, Clarkson shines brightest when she uses her strengths – namely, her voice. While she delivers the more en vogue pop sounds well, she is at her best when her voice leads – something that doesn't always happen on what is a largely digestible album.

In the world of rock and roll, growing old with dignity is hard. Age slows us down and mellows us out and those two characteristics are not associated with the fast-paced and wild image that prevails of the rock music world. Very few manage to maintain a cool look when performing the songs they wrote when they were in their twenties and ever fewer can write equally good new material without sounding like sad copies of themselves.

Just ask Guns ‘n Roses’ Axl Rose or try and listen to any recent Korn album without cringing. Many bands quit (R.E.M., Sonic Youth), others tone down their sound (Metallica) and some keep regurgitating what they’ve been doing for decades (The Rolling Stones).

Grunge-rockers Soundgarden are a welcome exception to this rule despite taking a sixteen year break. With their new record, King Animal, they seem to have aged gracefully: they’re not as loud as they used to be and not as chaotic as they once could be. Their years of experience in song writing, both individually and as a collective, makes for better, more well-thought out songs.

Kim Thayil’s guitar traditionally wails around on the dissonant side of the spectrum and singer Chris Cornell still deals out high-pitched screeches like a rock version of Celine Dion – but they have audibly matured. And considering that the grunge kids of two decades ago have aged with them, many will appreciate this more grown-up, adult sound.

Soundgarden has a diverse catalogue. The differences between their five previous albums are stark, not only in production value but also in actual sound. Debut album, Ultramega, OK is very raw and punky, while its follow-up, Louder than Love, was aptly titled for its loudness and saw the band progress deeper into metal and ever faster guitars. They perfected their metal-ness on third album, Badmotorfinger, and added a firm dose of melancholy coupled with a more polished sound to create the mega-selling grunge-classic Superunknown. The final album before their sixteen year hiatus, Down on the Upside, saw the foursome almost completely abandon their metal roots and turn to Led Zeppelin for inspiration.

King Animal is the logical conclusion of all of their previous albums. A slightly rawer version of ‘Attrition’ could easily have been on Louder than Love and the heavy riffs on ‘Eyelid’s Mouth’ and first single ‘Been Away Too Long' would have fitted any song on Badmotorfinger. Zeppelin resurfaces in the melancholic, meandering ‘Bones of Birds’ and the groovy mingling of acoustic and electric guitars on ‘Black Saturday’. The hit potential of the extremely catchy chorus in ‘Rowing’ would have made it a great addition to Superunknown, while the guitar riffs on ‘A Thousand Days Before This’ and ‘Blood on the Valley Floor’ sound genetically related to that album’s hit songs, ‘Black Hole Sun’ and ‘Spoonman’.

After 52 minutes, one question remains: now that Soundgarden seems to have arrived at their definitive sound, will they become one of those established bands that don’t evolve anymore? Like fellow Seattle-ites Pearl Jam, or grandfathers of rock Aerosmith, for example. Or will they continue to develop their sound, like Muse or Radiohead?

In any case, let’s hope Soundgarden keep at it this time and lead singer Chris Cornell doesn’t run off again on one of his solo-expeditions, trying to reinvent himself as a new Justin Timberlake or Bryan Adams. Or, God forbid, start another horrid ‘super-band’ like Audioslave. The world is certainly a better place without that.

Singer-songwriter, Tove Nilsson, first made her way to everyone’s ears with debut single, ‘(Habits) Stay High,’ and now the twenty-seven year-old Swede, who was discovered by the iconic Max Martin, has just released her first studio album.

Sweden has a fine history of producing unique pop; Abba aside, Swedish acts have successfully infiltrated UK and US charts in the past and continue to do so. The Cardigans were all the rage in the 90s and more recent examples include the Knife, the Concretes and Lykke Li who have all had varying success outside their homeland in the last decade.

It’s easy, then, to say that expectations are somewhat high for Ms Lo; but she meets them with aplomb.

Queen of the Clouds is divided into three parts – ‘The Sex’, ‘The Love’ and ‘The Pain’ – with each narrating a different stage of a relationship. The first section carries an edgy theme of carefree love and lust, riddle with risqué lyrics. ‘My Gun’ is unapologetically racy, ‘I Like ‘Em Young’ is as daring as its title implies and ‘Talking Body’ is equally as unrepentant in its approach to sex.

‘Time Bomb’ opens the second chapter of the story and sets a different theme as the relationship teeters between love and incompatibility, with a piano intro leading to a fast-paced chorus. With tracks like ‘Not on Drugs’, the album finds a venn diagram-like space that is best described as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry after they’ve knocked back a dozen cans of Red Bull, with its endearingly basic-pop lyrics yet explosive, disco-inspired beats.

The love affair crashes and burns in the third part of the album as Nilsson croons, “And then there’s no good way to end things/ ‘Cause it’s ending, y’know?” in ‘Thousand Miles’ which features a more laid back, monotonic beat that allows her vocals to take centre stage. The album’s lead single ‘Habits (Stay High)’ features in the last part and, alongside ‘This Time Around’, sees Lo at her angst-ridden best.

For the many that were eager to find what else Tove Lo had in her musical armoury, this will not disappoint; the bustling brunette meets the expectations of the bold, raw take on pop that her early hype promised. Queen of the Clouds mixes fun, dance-friendlybeats, with grand choruses and edgy, soulful lyrics in a neat little, edible package.